Friday, March 1, 2013

FRIDAY POTPOURRI: A STRONG CONSTITUTION

In the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church or Lumen Gentium (they really need a
marketing person to make their titles more appetizing) the Church attempts to
explain to the world who she is.(If you’ve
not caught on, this is the next document we are reviewing as suggested we do
during the Year of Faith by our papal emeritus.)In the first paragraph it states, “she
proposes, for the benefit of the faithful and of the whole world to set forth,
as clearly as possible . . . her own nature and universal mission.”

In deceivingly dense writing, the second paragraph takes us
on a quick trip through salvation history pointing out that our creation
through the second person of the Blessed Trinity was a totally gratuitous (in
the best sense) act of our God, that it was redeemed by Him, and will
eventually “return” to Him through the power of the Holy Spirit.A Christocentric Church, She is caught up in
the mystery and mission that God has set forth and hence will, in some sense,
always be mysterious.

It is God’s power that is making His kingdom grow in the
world and we are brought back to that original unity for which we were made
primarily through the celebration of the Eucharist through which, “the unity of
believers, who form the one body in Christ, is both expressed and brought
about.”So we are also Eucharistically
centered.

When Jesus’ mission came to completion, the Holy Spirit was
sent to “continually sanctify the Church . . .”We are constantly made new and each given gifts to aid the Church (the
Body of Christ) in Her mission.The
Church is bride calling out in the spirit to Her Spouse, the Bridegroom (Jesus)
and “hence the universal (read catholic) Church is seen to be ‘a people brought
into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.’”(Do you see where John Paul II might have
begun getting his idea concerning the Theology of the Body?)Cool stuff.

Gads!And that’s just
the first 4 paragraphs there is a lot more to glean out of it than what was
presented here but this give you a taste.

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WEEKLY SCHEDULE

MONDAY - Monday Diary: A day in the life of a priest.TUESDAY - Quote Tuesday: A post of an interesting quote along with various other things sitting on my computer from the past week such as links, polls, pictures, videos, or games.WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY - Thoughts for your consideration either from me or guest bloggers.FRIDAY - Friday Popourri - A grab bag of regular topics from symbolism to vocation stories.